CHILDHOOD

1954-1958:

I was born June 23rd, 1954 in Minneapolis, Mn. Our family home was in Wayzata. I am the youngest of six children; 1 boy and 5 girls I don't remember a lot from these years, as I was pretty small. I do remember the yellow house we lived in right across the street from a corn field, which was great to hide in when our parents wanted us to come home and we wanted to stay out and play some more.

I don't remember my dad during these years, as he was a traveling salesman for the Creamette Company. The only thing I remember about the house is that our bedroom had a connecting closet into my brothers room. He had a lock on his door, but after he'd leave for school, my sister and I would crawl through the closet and go exploring in his room. It took him months to figure out how
someone had gotten into his room each day, disturb his things, with his door locked!

We were somewhat out in the country and there weren't many houses in the neighborhood, so my only friend outside of my sisters' was Joyce Carlson (standing in pic above). She lived next door to us.

I do remember a large fire that had engulfed the corn field across the street from us and a forest behind our house. I watched in terror almost all night while my father used a garden hose to keep our house wet.

My last memory of those times in Wayzata was one night I heard my mother screaming to "get a broom, get a broom!" A weasel had somehow gotten into our basement and was going round and round the basement steps with Naylor, our Golden Retriever close behind and my dad following the dog. I don't remember how it ended, but I assume the weasel lost.